Officials have said that Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, aka "Z-40," liked to "stew" his enemies by plunging them in containers of oil and fuel before lighting them on fire, AFP reports.

The 40-year-old ex-police officer and two others were detained in Anahuac, a city bordering Texas.

The Zetas, founded by former elite soldiers, are one of the most powerful and feared organized crime groups in Mexico. The cartel originally served as the enforcers of the Gulf Cartel, but split off in 2010.

A brutal turf war between the Zetas, Gulf, and Sinaloa cartels has been ongoing in the north of the country ever since.

A different opportunistic cartel member will undoubtedly take Z-40's place. As Pablo Escobar's former security chief, Jhon "Popeye" Velásquez, told Der Spiegel: "You will never win this [drug] war when there is so much money to me made. Never."

Z-40 took control of the Zetas after Mexican troops killed his predecessor, Heriberto Lazcano. Authorities lost Lazcano's corpse when gunmen stole his body for a funeral home.DEA

REUTERS/Bernardo MontoyaA cameraman films a screen showing photographs of Miguel Angel Trevino during a news conference in Mexico City July 15, 2013. The Mexican government said on Monday it had captured the leader of the Zetas drug cartel, delivering a boost to President Enrique Pena Nieto in his fight against violent crime. Miguel Angel Trevino, 40, known as Z-40, was captured early on Monday by Mexican Marines near the northern city of Nuevo Laredo on the U.S. border, a government spokesman told reporters.